Monday, November 15, 2010

Honouring the dead, pissing on the living

Yesterday we went up to Brock Barracks to take part in the Remembrance Service. Among the local military and civic groups laying wreaths at the monument were two shady types in dark suits: Rob Wilson MP and Alok Sharma MP- the Conservative MPs for Reading East and West Respectively. Whilst they made show of paying their respects for the dead of Britains wars, they and the Government they support are pissing on the living. The Government has announced that rises in Army pensions; which includes payments to widows and those maimed will now on be linked to the Consumer Price Index, rather than the Retail Price Index that had previously been the case. By not including housing costs in the calculations: "The Forces Pensions Society calculates that the change, which affects forces pensions and annual Guaranteed Income Payments, means a 34-year-old wife of a staff sergeant killed in Afghanistan, for example, would be almost £750,000 worse off over the course of her lifetime.

A corporal who lost both legs in a bomb blast would miss out on about £500,000 in pension and benefit-related payments" the Government responds by declaring that MoD pensioners should not be treated differently from the rest of the public sector. This must be a great comfort when having ones limbs blown off by a IUD in Helmond.